Chapter Seven

As soon as she said it, she regretted it. Hunting or even just running in the rain was a very stupid idea. Though she’d only said it to initially see Nathaniel’s reaction, she really really didn’t expect him to agree and head out into the rain before her. She didn’t like hunting in the rain because the ground was muddy and you could sink in it. She liked to bounce off hard, but not to hard ground, to run easily and not slip onto your face. Which she’d done too often. Another reason was there was hardly any meat running around in the rain. So it was just stupid to hunt in weather like this.
Kirsty had watched Nathaniel march towards the forest for a second, dressed in spare clothes from Hawk and Trey then took off after him, catching up and striding in front, he dropped back and let her take the lead as Alpha. Brownie points for him. Kirsty went right, as she had a tendency to do, she veered off into her favourite, if not muddy, shrubbery to change, not even bothering to look where Nathaniel went,
This could be very interesting, she though to herself as she disappeared into her usually amount of shrubs to change. She was already sodden to the skin, so she just pealed off her clothing and left them in an unorganised pile, the rain was beating against her bare skin, rolling over her curved almost perfect body. She shuddered and dropped down onto the muddy soft ground and sunk her fingers and toes into the ground for grip as she changed.
Her change came rather easily, maybe it was the feel of rain beating against her skin continuously that soothed her, or the missing tension of Simon gone from between her shoulders, or just because she wanted to change easily that it came like that. She stood for a minute of two, letting her fur get soaked to her skin then, as the bushes rustled and a black and white muzzle stuck through the damp green leaves, she snapped and leaped out, almost landing directly on top of Nathaniel.
Instead he rolled to the side and yapped at her. She growled and he stepped back, head going to touch the floor in some sort of submission. She grinned her in wolfish fashion and turned from him, body held high to show she was in charge. She began to trot into the more dense part of the forest, where the rain held off a little from the shelter of the trees. She knew he was following by the sound of mud squishing under him rather large paws. For just a young boy he did seem to be a rather large wolf, mostly the length of his fur, Kirsty decide, turning into a clump of shrubs. He followed, getting his body stuck for a second then tugging himself free.
Kirsty stopped and sniffed the ground. Here, where the rain held off enough, the animals would hardly know it was raining. She could smell rabbit, deer and oddly enough a cat.
Looking over her shoulder to see where he was, she stopped Nathaniel moving up towards her, paws and most of his front legs covered in mud. He grunted and Kirsty replied, lowering her nose to the ground again, finding the direction of the deer.
After what seemed like a good 15 minutes tracking the deer, they picked up the scent a lot strong then it had been a while ago. Kirsty barked instructions to Nathaniel and he turned, heading left. Hopefully he would flush out the deer so she would kill it. Hopefully that was, this little test, which she’d initially thought he’d past on would show his commitment to join the pack. It would show how much he wanted to join the pack by letting her take the kill as Alpha. If he killed the deer before she did, he wouldn’t have any commitment to join the pack as he disrespected the Alpha. Alphas always get the first kill. So she laid down, head on her paws, watching the black dot across from her as Nathaniel stalked the deer. She watched, keeping one eye on Nathaniel, the other on the deer, and as it moved suddenly, jerking its head upwards and searching the surrounds area like a spooked animal that it was, did she raise her head. She glanced to Nathaniel, who had disappeared, then too the deer. Her back paws dug into the ground, ready to pounce at the now fleeing deer. It was running right at her. Full pelt. She wondered what it would be like to hae Trey at her side now, all dominant and ready to kill to stop the deer from hitting her. It began to run and Nathaniel was still nowhere to be seen. The deer headed towards her, breaking through the branches, bushes and over the muddy ground. She readied herself and as she was to pounce, the black streak that was Nathaniel dived out from her left, hitting the deer in the side and sending it crashing into the nearest tree stump. It sagged and hit the floor. Nathaniel backed off and Kirsty pounced forward, digging her outstretched claws into its side, pinning it to the ground, then lowering her muzzle to its neck, ripping at the soft flesh that was there. Blood flowed outwards and she killed it easily. She looked up, blood stained around her muzzle, right at Nathaniel, who stood waiting. He was dedicated. He was pack.
Lowering her muzzle back to the deer she began to eat, joined minutes later by Nathaniel’s black and white muzzle.

They ran for a while, and then rested separately. The rain had finally subsided and as Kirsty lay on the still et muddy ground, she wondered why the air was so silent. Why she couldn’t hear the roar of laughter from the house that was merry a few hundred yards from her, why she couldn’t hear the pounding of other wolf paws on the ground as her pack ran with out her. It was unusual. She sat up then and sniffed the air. Something didn’t smell right. Not at all. Tugging on her rather damp clothes she stood and crept to her left, finding a already fully dressed Nathaniel sat staring at a grey squirrel that seemed rather interested in him,
‘Nathaniel?’ she muttered and he looked up, his new found friend scuttling away,
‘Hmm?’
‘Its too quiet,’ she said and he stood, scanning the ground around them as he did.
‘Is it not usually at night?’
‘No! Not here anyway,’ she replied, turning from him and looking over at her home. It was then that she noticed the flashing lights in the kitchen windows. She smelt it then, an odd smell that made both her and Nathaniel turn their noses away. Gun powder and Wolves bane.

The headed towards the house with such speed Kirsty didn’t know how she managed it. Charging through the open kitchen door she span around to look around at the still trashed kitchen. Nothing seemed out of place. Where did the lights come from? They moved deeper into the dark house,
‘Trey?’ she said quietly and no answer came, ‘Luce? Ludi?’ no answers still, she turned into the hall way and the dart hit her low in the belly.

The pain soared through her lower abdomen, cutting through her gut and deeper into her stomach. Clutching and ripping Nathaniel’s shirt, Kirsty’s knees buckled and she hit the floor, dragging him with her. He tried to hold her, but she went down hard, the three darts protruding from her lower back had sunk in deep,
‘Run,’ she mumbled and the look of panic tore across Nathaniel’s face. He didn’t want to leave his Alpha, but he didn’t want to get caught. When Kirsty actually shoved him back, he stumbled and started to run, not looking back as the completely black dressed soldiers started to close in. He would get help, Kirsty though, closing her eyes and concentrating.
Her change came slowly, painfully, hindered by the wolves bane that was coursing through her blood stream, she forced her change like she’d done before. The flash of pain through her abdomen again reminded her of older times.

England – Many years ago.

Kirsty feel to her knees clutching her stomach, she heaved and threw up into the toilet. Horrid stomach lining came up through her throat and she threw it right back into the toilet bowl. After about 5 minutes of doing so, she lent back against the cold tile floor and whimpered, still holding her stomach. In a few minutes her mother would come crashing in and ask her what was wrong. And then she would tell her that she’d been out drinking for the past 6 hours and was now throwing the empty contents of her stomach up. Yeah right, she’d think of some stupid see-through-able story about having the flu or something and get the next three days off school recuperating or something ridiculous.
Whipping the back of her hand across her sweaty forehead and plastering red tendrils of hair back into the mess it already was, she lent back against the floor, lying down and curling into a ball.
Minuets past, Kirsty wasn’t sure if she’d fallen asleep or not, she just knew her mom hadn’t come running to her aid like she usually did. Pulling herself up using the toilet, she found she was shaking badly. Though that was common with her 15 year old body after drinking far too much in a short amount of time. Stumbling from the white tiled bathroom, she caught herself as she almost fell onto her face again. Knocking something off the side board, Kirsty tried and failed to catch it. Rubbing and holding her head again she went for her mothers door knob. She twisted it sharply and stepped into a semi-dark room,
‘Mom?’ she said in a rather strained squeaky voice. There was a thud and a lot of noise that sounded like scrabbling around. Kirsty lent against eh door frame and fumbled for the light switch, ‘Mom are you alright?’ she found it and flicked it on.
What she saw then changed her life. The man laid in her mother bed wasn’t her father, in fact technically it was her father, that man was called Lewis, he was the man her mother had had an affair with on and off for 18 years, he was Kirsty werewolf father, ‘Oh my god,’ she mumbled, stepping back until she hit the wall. The pain struck through her stomach again then, a crippling pain so bad she had to clutch her stomach as she sank to the floor. Her mother came to the door and started to yell something. Kirsty couldn’t hear it, everything was going blurry. She could feel the vomit rising again. Leaning forward as quickly as she could, she threw up on the floor and lolled to the side, topping over to lye on she side and clutch her stomach more. She wondered if this was what giving birth felt like. She felt like her inside where ripping open. Then it got worse. The man from her mothers bed, had come to the door and was now crouched beside her head, sheet wrapped around his waist. He was tanned and muscled with a mop of curly brown hair plastered to his head with sweat,
‘She’s changing,’ Kirsty heard him said, but it sounded as if he was stood at the end of a very long tunnel. Closing her eyes she felt like she wasn’t on the floor any more, but rather floating around.
Suddenly her body convulsed and shook madly, her clothes ripping and the pain of the first change over taking, fur rippled down her back, her hands, arms, rib cage and legs all popped out of place, muscled stretched and bones moved till they where the right shape and place. She screamed all the while and slowly it changed from scream to howl. Her mother whimpered and lent against the wall staring madly at the small timber like wolf lying in the corridor,
‘Tha-that’s not my daughter?’ she mumbled and her lover stood up, he turned to her and nodded,
‘You knew what I was when you took me to your bed, did you not realise this would happen! There was a 50% chance this would happen, you cant just disown her,’
‘Oh watch me,’

6 hours after her first change, Kirsty sat at a train station, still clutching her stomach from the cramp like pains, a back-pack and duffle bag full of her belongings. Next to her was Lewis, he’d taken her to the station. He’d explained that he was her father, that he’d been a hooker when her mother met him, explained that he was sorry this was happening to him. Kirsty hadn’t said a word, not even when he gave her a wad of cash and drove her to the station, sat with her till the train for Heathrow Airport arrived and he’d wished her luck. She nodded and took a seat away from anyone else and whipped the tears from her cheeks. How the hell do you deal with the fact that you’re an actual 15 year old homeless werewolf? Lewis had told her about a pack in New York. He told her that they would let her in because it was his old pack. He’d told her she’d be safe, the top of the food chain, everything. She never believe him.

Now – Stone Haven forest.

She lashed out with her claws, cutting down one of the 6 soldiers. Rolling to the side, Kristy gripped ones unprotected leg and ripped it form under him, the knee cap broke and he fell to the ground, shooting off rounds into the air, she growled and ripped his throat open. Two down, she though spinning around to face the other four. One started to open fire with his sub-machine gun thingy. She dodged then and slammed into his chest, clawing at the Kevlar that covered his flesh. She sliced at his unprotected face and blood gushed out, squirting her in the face and down her belly. The body dropped to the floor and she sway to the left, losing her balance, No, she told herself going for the third solider. But she didn’t reach him, another yellow feathered dart hit her in the side and she dropped like a lead balloon.